Q&A with Tahir Shah discussion

This topic is for your questions regarding Eye Spy, my latest novel, which was released as an ebook in April 2013.

Hello Tahir,

Eye Spy is such a good read, fresh and new and awakening. The plot is very compelling, but at the same time one finds oneself observing one’s reactions. This is interesting.

Janet

Hello Tahir,

To the people in the Occident cannibalism is anathema, yet in Christian churches every day the words of Jesus are repeated: 'Take and eat. This is my body'. This was strange language, to say the least, in which to clothe his directions to his apostles. I wonder what you think?

Ita

i am on chapter thirty two and reading (now) (on the computer,) gripped. fascination and excitement levels very high indeed.
have interruptd reading to ask this.
is kaine mephistopheles rather than superman to help fix certain things in the memory, not least how short cuts may lead to hell?
what role does disgust and horror play in remembering things.?
i am assuuming that killing people and eating their eyes is wrong under any cirucmstances whatever?
like the reader above it seems especially easy to watch one's reactions while reading this real thriller of a book.
the narrative looks like a blue print to me? not that i am saying i can read the blueprint..
thank you once again.

We're basking in beautiful, rare sunshine. Parts of Central Europe are suffering the worst flooding since the sixteenth century. 'Extreme weather events' are becoming common. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 0.04%, the highest it has been for millions of years. In most of your books you show concern for the balance between man and the rest of nature. In 'Eye Spy" you suggest the human race is balanced on a knife edge, yet the people we depend on to keep us informed are more interested in the resignation of football managers, and there is no evidence that those we depend on for leadership consider the future of humanity to be a high priority.
How much time is left for someone with the genius of Amadeus Caine to avert disaster?

Hello Tahir
I have just finished Eye Spy in no time at all. It is so thought provoking, weird and different from your other books. And then I saw that you have also written “Cannibalism”. Why have you become interested in this subject?
One thought came up after the reading: What´s the difference between eating a human heart or eye, if they contained something that could cure somebody, between operating the organs into a body?
Ulrika

like ita above and this re-iterates what she says more or less. However..
i was also wondering how long we have? are we going to survive without it getting worse than we imagine possible? the rotten quality of the so called food we eat; the divorce from the planet; the way we are treating the other animals on the planet, never mind man; the ant like lives we lead etc.
All I suppose state of the ark blindness only cured by the special food.
i take it not food found the way amadeaus kaine (cain) finds it. insights leading to drug addiction and delusions.
do brain cells grow with intellectual stimulation? one would like to ask questions that are a help in the process of learning a help to the Able.

I know, it’s curious isn’t it, that Christianity mentioned what could be regarded as cannibalism? I find myself wondering whether this wording from the Gospels is part of an ancient tradition which pre-dates Christianity.

Thanks Janet, I had wanted to get people thinking about what shocked them. And, although i don't go in for horror, I think it's fascinating to look at how we react to given situations and to what society expects us to be horrified by. It's so wonderful to question it all, and I hope that EYE SPY stirs the pot and makes us all think.

Thanks Toni,

Writing EYE SPY got me thinking a great deal about us all as well as myself. I liked examining what makes us tick as a society, and how idea of what revolts us and why. You are so right that Kaine's behaviour was wrong wrong wrong, but I am fascinated by the idea that he was the one man alive who could save society's sight at a time when he was its greatest villain.

I am horrified by the power of the media in telling us who is important and who is not. I rail against footballers, actors, and celebrities of most kinds because I think they are usually very dysfunctional people. (Yes, Amadeus Kaine was dysfunctional, too, but he had a genius at the same time). I wish we would reward polymaths in society and the ordinary people who are the glue that bank our world together. We could all live without the celebrities, but not without the train drivers, the fire fighters and the nurses etc.

Hi Ulrika,

I've been interested in cannibalism for a long long while -- since studying about 'primate cultures'. I first came across examples of cannibalism in our time time in the mid 80s when i was at university in Kenya. It struck me as fascinating that most societies have at one time or another eaten people, or parts of people. But, in our world, cannibalism is the last taboo, or one of them. I don't think it's right to eat people, but just that we have forgotten that it was so normal until relatively recently.

As few months ago I saw a documentary about food in the USA called FOOD INC. I recommend it to anyone. It was very shocking to me... especially the statistic that in the US there are only 13 slaughterhouses for the entire country. They are massive, as big as car manufacturing plants.

And watching that documentary got me thinking -- that the food the industrialised world consumes is of a lower and lower standard. Mix this with the fact that people do less and less exercise, and use more and more prescription drugs... and the fact that they have become detached in a single generation from the world their ancestors knew. This cannot be a good thing. We will continue for a while -- like a frog boiling in a pot without realising it -- but gradually, societies will break down. And, if you ask me, it's already happening.

Hi Tahir,
On the note of normal, in ‘Eye Spy’ the reader bears witness to Amadeus Kaine’s slowly justifying and normalising cannibalism through his internal dialogue. I am aware that sociologists and psychologists talk about normalisation processes.
I have often been struck by the ideas emphasised in your father’s writing, and also by Doris Lessing, that society and institutions could be transformed if everyone familiarised themselves better with (relatively) recent discoveries in psychology and sociology, findings which as Lessing says show ‘how the human animal actually does behave instead of how we think it does’.
I was curious about whether you thought there were some signs of hope that society is beginning to absorb some of these insights?
With many thanks, Naomi

Tahir, you write: "but gradually, societies will break down. And, if you ask me, it's already happening."

Yes, alas all the signs are there, Tahir, and a growing dissatisfaction felt by many. When ordinary, decent, liberal-minded and otherwise peaceful people start talking about it being the time to fight back or for some kind of revolution ... well, the powers that be really need to sit up and take notice; we all need to, imo.

Tahir wrote: "I am horrified by the power of the media in telling us who is important and who is not. I rail against footballers, actors, and celebrities of most kinds because I think they are usually very dysfu..."

Absolutely. The cult of celebrity is such a pain, and these days there are many like "Tobermory Cat" who are famous for no reason other than that they are famous. :)

Hi Naomi, what an interesting an intelligent question. Thank you. I am no great expert on society, but I see when a society goes off track and when it doesn't. And most of the time it seems to go off track when ancient mechanisms are ruptured. I see this happening all the time, especially in northern Europe and the US. I'm talking about, for instance, putting old people in homes, where their communal knowledge is lost. Or the obsession of having new books and material when people forget to read what they have already churned out. Libraries lie dormant while people obsess about the newest, the latest book. Our food manufacturing processes are also chronic and the lack of nutrition in the food is compensated by medicines and prescription drugs. We live jam-packed in cities that are no way anything like we are programmed to understand. It takes us longer and longer to learn to live in this world --and that seems wrong to me.

Hello Tahir,
I've read Eye Spy with great enthusiasm but must admit that for me it's a difficult book.
Apart from the obvious shock, cannibalism, weird and funny aspect, it is full of allegories, lke e.g. "chickens", "seeing"... Could they be linked with our conditionings and the necessity to swallow/integrate a part of ourselves in order to be eventually free? I just loved the end...

Thanks Maggie... While writing it I kept thinking how trapped we are are in what we perceive to be the right way of thinking and behaving. I wanted to shake people up, and hope that the book did that just a little. TS

It did, in fact. Thanks Tahir

Something else that came out in 'Eye Spy' was Amadeus Caine's lust for revenge at the end of the book. Societies that were traditionally Christian are supposed to be above this, but the desire for revenge seems to run very deep in us. It is very noticable among people from the USA, but it's also strong in Northern Ireland.
Personally I find a sentence you put into the mouth of Richard Adams in 'Timbuctoo' very helpful. It was about leaving justice to God.

Thank you, Ita. Yes, revenge is strong in Occidental society, just as it is in the Orient. I sometimes gets very worked up and angry and find myself hankering for revenge. Then I remember what my father said. He used to tell me, 'Don't waste your time getting revenge, because sooner or later some else with thump that person, or react to them in a way that you never could.'

TS

Thank you for your answer Tahir. Since you have a penchant for magic and difficult subjects, please let me know if you ever become interested in the history of the Tarot. I have good material on this. And I cannot refrain from saying that you are much alike your father in that you are always vibrant with live experience in all you write- which also translates as fresh, honest, and transparent. Keep writing!